<p>Kenny Perry signs autographs after a practice round for the PGA Championship on Tuesday at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. The tournament is set to begin Thursday. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)</p>

Kenny Perry bumps fists with his caddie Fred Sanders during the third round of the Champions Tour's 3M Championship on Sunday at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn. Perry won the tournament. (AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)

Kenny Perry celebrates after he sunk a birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the Champions Tour's 3M Championship on Sunday at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minn. (AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)

Vero Beach resident making final major start

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Not even the world’s best golfers get a mulligan when they need it most.

Just ask part-time Vero Beach resident Kenny Perry.

Eighteen years after the fact, Perry still laments a colossal mental mistake he made at the 1996 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in his home state of Kentucky.

Perry thought he had won his first major championship when he shot a final-round 68 to finish at 11-under-par 277. Perry was so sure he would be lifting the Wanamaker Trophy, he spent the rest of the round in CBS’ 18th-hole tower chatting with Jim Nantz instead of hitting balls on the range to stay loose.

When Mark Brooks birdied the par-5 18th hole, Perry — who had bogeyed the hole — suddenly found himself in a playoff as he scrambled out of the booth.

Not surprisingly, Perry hooked his drive on the playoff hole and watched as Brooks made a 5-footer for birdie to rip out Perry’s heart.

What should have been the highlight of Perry’s career turned into something that has haunted him for a long time.

“That was the worst of anything I experienced in 30 years on the Tour, even though I lost the (2009) Masters in a playoff,” Perry said Tuesday. “For that to be in your home state, something that people kind of remember you for, that was a tough one. It took me more than a year to get over that.

“It was always, ‘Why me? Why me?’ But I learned how to not get ahead of yourself and how to finish off tournaments. It made me mentally tougher.”

The good thing for golfers is there always is another hole, another round, another tournament. And thanks to a special invitation from the PGA of America, Perry returned to Valhalla for this week’s 96th PGA Championship in what likely will be his final start in a major championship.

Perry had an overachieving career, using his homemade swing to win 14 PGA Tour titles — 12 of them coming in his 40s — and seven Champions Tour wins, including last week’s 3M Championship.

It wasn’t a Hall of Fame career, but it could have been had he won that PGA and not blown a two-shot lead with two holes to play five years ago at Augusta National, losing in a playoff to Angel Cabrera.

“I was this close to being a Hall of Famer,” Perry said, holding his fingers a half-inch apart. “I would have had 16 PGA Tour wins and two majors. Freddie (Couples) got in with 15 wins and one major.”

But the year before Perry almost won the green jacket, he made a triumphant return to Valhalla when he helped lead the U.S. team to their only Ryder Cup victory during this century. He calls that the highlight of his career, even though it was an unofficial team competition.

“The Ryder Cup to me was No. 1,” Perry said. “It was fun. That was great, playing for your home country, in your home state, with 11 of your good buddies. It was pretty magical.”

Perry’s goals this week are modest, despite his continued strong play on the Champions Tour. He simply would like to spend his 54th birthday Sunday playing in the final round of the PGA.

Perry interrupted his regular Tuesday baby-sitting his two grandkids to get in a practice round at Valhalla. He tried to take in every sight and sound of the course, knowing he is about to “go out the back door” of his career.

When the round was over, he did something he rarely has been asked to do on the PGA Tour — sign autographs. For more than an hour, he signed autographs and did his Phil Mickelson impersonation.

“I never really had to spend a lot of time signing autographs,” Perry said. “It’s a way of saying thank you for your love and compassion for me.”

As he was signing, fans were shouting out names of the small Kentucky towns where they live, just like Perry, who grew up two hours away from Valhalla in Franklin. Almost two decades ago, he used some of his $37 million in earnings to build the only public course in his hometown, aptly called Country Creek.

Perry is as country as they come, from his high-pitched laugh to his love for drag racing, though granddad no longer hits 200-mph on the racing strips. His low-key nature is why he returns to Vero Beach every winter, hosting a charity event at Bent Pine Golf Club.

Perry still can hit a golf ball as solid as he ever did. And he no longer says “Why me?”

“You can either go down that path and disappear or have it make you tougher,” Perry said. “It made me tougher. I grew up from it.”

— Craig Dolch is a Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers correspondent with more than 30 years of golf writing experience. This column reflects his opinion.